"Can A Joint US-Russian Research Team Protect Alaska's Polar Bears?"

"A 2000 treaty committed the two nations to study and conserve their polar bears. Even as political tensions rise, climate change and other pressures make their work more necessary than ever."

"American perceptions of Russia may have soured in recent weeks, as evidence mounts that President Vladimir Putin intervened to tip November’s US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.

But while concerns over Russian political interference grow in Washington, the frigid waters between Alaska and Siberia have seen greater collaboration from both the United States and Russia, as scientists from both nations study and protect the region’s polar bears.

"In the US, polar bears are active mainly in the spring and summer when ice usually remains," Alexander Gruzdev, the head of the Wrangel Island Reserve, told Russia Beyond the Headlines, a state-owned news agency. "They come to Russia in autumn when they can still hunt because there is no ice yet, and they remain here until early spring." These seasonal migrations mean that the Chukotka-Alaska polar bear population, one of 19 such groups, straddles Russian and American waters."

Patrick Reilly reports for the Christian Science Monitor January 11, 2017.